Yesterday, the U.S. Senate Committee on Rules and Administration held a hearing on the nomination of Donald Palmer to serve as a Commissioner on the Election Assistance Commission. This is a prestigious appointment for Mr. Palmer who has already had a career of prestige, integrity, and honor. Currently, Mr. Palmer wears multiple hats including serving as a fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center. Mr. Palmer’s career in public service has been extensive, serving as a Naval Reserve Officer, serving as a trial attorney at the Department of Justice, serving as the Director of Elections in Florida, and acting as Secretary of the State Board of Elections in Virginia.

While the ABA, nonpartisan and Republican legal circles all agree that Thomas Farr is well qualified to be a District Court Judge, Senator Schumer and DC-based liberal judicial smear groups are attacking Mr. Farr. The irony is that the items they are attacking him for are supported by Democrats!

First, Mr. Farr is being attacked for defending North Carolina’s voter ID law for his client, the state of North Carolina. Putting aside the lawyer's ethical duty to his clients, voter ID is supported by a large majority of Democrats in every survey released. The most recent survey put the numbers at 63% support for a photo ID requirement from Democrats and more interesting, 69% support from lower-educated Democrats.

I was on the ground as an observer in Broward County during the Florida recount involving Governor Rick Scott and Senator Bill Nelson. Washington Democrats, Republicans, and the media are all confused regarding what really happen in Broward in the past few weeks.

Democrats want to say that any vote fraud or miscounting in Broward was caused by their inefficiency, not bad intent. Yet, there can be no question the final vote total stole votes from Rick Scott.

Every school kid knows the refrain of Boston’s Sons of Liberty during revolutionary times of “No Taxation without Representation.” Well, today in Massachusetts that saying would not be allowed without a lengthy disclaimer with founding father Sam Adams face on it.

While Republicans did knock off a number of incumbent Democrat Senators, one would think that Democrats would be celebrating taking back the House and a “good election” night. The fact of the matter is the Democrats and their liberal allies spent a great deal of time being sore losers or worse. As Lisa Boothe writes:

The 2018 midterms crystallized one thing: The Democrat Party is the party of sore losers. Joining the ranks of Hillary Clinton - who still hasn't come to grips with the fact she lost the 2016 presidential election - Stacey Abrams, Bill Nelson, and Andrew Gillum all showed America how to lack grace in defeat.

Let’s start with Georgia Democrat Nominee for Governor Stacy Abrams. After clearly losing she continued to claim voter suppression and gave a concession speech that only Hillary Clinton could be proud of. As the Editors of the Weekly Standard point out:

This is the first midterm election cycle since 2002 where any incumbents of the non-presidential party lost re-election. The Democrats lost four such races. In part this was because of their terrible treatment of Brett Kavanaugh. Marc Theissen wrote last week in "Kavanaugh treatment gave Senate to GOP":

It cost Democrats their chance to regain control of the Senate. And it gave Republicans an expanded Senate majority that will allow them to confirm an even more conservative justice next time around.

. . .

None of that might have been possible had it not been for the Democrats’ horrific treatment of Kavanaugh. As Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell put it, the failed effort to stop Kavanaugh was “like an adrenaline shot” for the GOP base. Republican voters were outraged to see a good man accused, without a shred of corroboration, of sexually assaulting a teenage girl, exposing himself to a college classmate and participating in gang rapes in high school. They were disgusted by Senate Democrats’ insistence the burden was on Kavanaugh to prove he didn’t do it and by Democrats’ blatant disregard for the presumption of innocence. They were energized by Kavanaugh’s willingness to fight back and declare his treatment by Democrats a “national disgrace.” And they punished the perpetrators of that disgrace at the polls on Nov. 6. . . .

The lesson for Democrats should be clear: Character assassination does not pay. Quite the opposite, it backfired – big-time.

Today, President Trump gave Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian honor. Senator Hatch was given the award along with six others, including the late Justice Antonin Scalia. Senator Hatch, who is retiring, is currently the longest-serving senator and Senate President pro tempore, and voted on the confirmation of every current Supreme Court justice.

More than a week later, the full extent of the 2018 Midterm Elections is still finalizing with several important pending races across the nation. Perhaps one of the most interesting is that of Maine’s second congressional district, which is utilizing “ranked-choice voting” to elect its congressional representative—a first in the nation.

Today, in a dramatic reversal, this Maine race suddenly ended with the Democratic challenger named as the winner, despite trailing the Republican in the first round of vote counting. In just a matter of seconds, a computer algorithm reallocated voters' choices after eliminating lowest performing candidates.

Florida is once again in the news for its election administration problems. Of course, it is unfair to say "Florida," as it is really just a handful of counties in south Florida that perennially find it difficult to follow Florida's election laws and procedures. Even the counties devastated by Hurricane Michael less than a month before Election Day managed to count their ballots on time. But not Broward or Palm Beach Counties.